Researchers say people who can't filter out "competing noises" are usually very creative and talented. (And if you can understand the study, you're probably extra brilliant.) Basically, if you are very aware of sounds like someone chomping or tapping their fingers, it's because your mind is able to focus on multiple things at once, which is why you feel like you're going nuts.

"The study cites creative geniuses such as Charles Darwin, Anton Chekhov and novelist Marcel Proust, who notoriously wore ear-stoppers and lined his bedroom with cork to block out noise whilst he worked," The Telegraph explains.

So the next time your co-worker can't stop crunching those potato chips, take pride in the fact that this could mean you're a genius.​